BBQ Chicken Chermoula

The days are drawing in, it’s getting darker earlier, and my photos are no longer in lovely sunshine.  I’ve done the best I can to get this one to the point I wasn’t ashamed to post it, with less that great success.   We spent the summer BBQing a lot of old favourites and I just haven’t been tempted to explore new recipes until I saw one in the Sunday paper that looked like it could be adapted to the slow-card lifestyle with little effort.  I tweaked the spice levels a bit, dropped the brown sugar, and used it for 8 chicken breasts.  It was yummy.  DH would have liked it better with some heat (and adding a finely chopped, de-seeded chili pepper would do just that) but DD and I both enjoyed it just the way it was.

a pinch of saffron (yes, it’s expensive, but it really does add to the flavour)

1 tbls each of coriander seeds, fennel seeds and cumin seeds (it’s not really the same with powdered spices)

juice of a lemon

1 tbls red wine vinegar

1/4 tsp cinnamon

1 tbls paprika (not smoked paprika)

1 tbls garlic (more if you want, finely chopped)

3 tbls olive oil

3 tbls finely chopped coriander (cilantro)

Start by putting the saffron in a couple of tbls hot water to steep.

Put all the seeds in a small dry frying pan. Toast them for a few minutes till you can smell the spices and they are dry and toasty – don’t burn them!

Grind the toasted spices in a mortar and pestle.

Combine all the other ingredients and whisk to emulsify.

Put the chicken breasts in a zip-lock bag with the marinade.  Leave it for at least an hour or two, turning and massaging the bag every so often.

BBQ.

Served with runner beans (every gardener we know has given us bags of them!) and black lentils with mushrooms and thyme.  They went well together. It was only at the last minute that I grabbed my camera to snap the photo, I am so out of practice.  I hope we will be doing more experimental cooking now the summer is over and will hope to add more recipes in the coming months.

Meatballs

Bet you thought I had totally fallen off the wagon.  Nope.  Still hanging in there.  Just not making lots of NEW recipes and yes, STILL BBQing almost every night.

But on one of the rare unsuitable days I did make these meatballs Now usually they would need something bready in them, to lighten the texture a bit.  I did notice that they were more dense and less moist without it, but that is the sacrifice for slow-carb.  Still good. Makes enough for a meal plus leftovers, certainly for two, or feeds four if two are kids who don’t like meatballs very much LOL!

about 2 kilos ground meat (I like a mixture of beef and pork or turkey)

one egg, lightly beaten

1 tbls olive oil

1 tbls garlic puree or fresh garlic chopped very fine

If I have it, and am feeling a bit lazy, I will use a pack of Schwartz Spicy American Meatball spice mix.  If not I mix in about 1  to 2 tsps  of cumin, oregano, basil, rosemary, and a good heaped tablespoon of dried chili flakes.

Mix it all up well, to distribute the spices thru the meat and then roll into balls.  You can make them golf ball size or tennis ball size, doesn’t matter much.  I put them in a roasting tin and cook them in the oven for about 30 minutes (tennis ball size) or 20 minutes (golf ball size), turning half way thru and draining off the fat so the get a bit crispy on the surface.

Take them out with a slotted spoon and put them in your crock pot.  Dump over a big jar of passata  or a couple of cans of mashed up chopped tomatoes and add more garlic and more fresh herbs, a good tbls or two, then salt and pepper. Cook it on low for 4-6 hours, but it can keep in to crock for almost as long as you need it to.

I often serve them over sautéed cabbage (Sweetheart or Savoy) in the wintertime but just with a nice fresh veg on warmer days.

 

Sunday Take-away

No cooking today, but I have been meaning to mention this for AGES.

Our usual Sunday Night dinner is Indian.  Most things I’m not too sure of in terms of ingredients so I’ve settled in to a routine that I look forward to. That, and actually NOT having to cook one night.

What I order is Chicken Shashlic – now I know from experience that Indian takeaways will vary greatly as to what actually arrives  even if you order the same thing.  At OUR local Indian, the Shashlic is basically marinated chicken, with onions, peppers and tomatoes, obviously cooked on a skewer, based on the holes through it all, and with a bit of juice (not sauce, just the natural juices from the meat and the veg)

What I usually do is 1/2 the portion first so I have 1/2 for lunch the next day, especially if we get the shami kebabs (the one that looks like a reddish  lamb burger, at least at ours) as a side. I tip out the juices and heat my can o’ beans (not a huge Dal fan myself) then mash the beans into the juice, add a bit of salt and pepper and tuck in.

This eases us back into the slow-carb way for the next week.

 

Lentils on the side

Still BBQing a lot.  This was some 98% meat sausages on the grill and very nice they were.  It does seem, looking back, that we have green beans with every meal, but we don’t.  As for green veg we usually have spinach, green beans, broccoli, asparagus when in season, and zucchini (courgettes) which I like best sliced and sautéed in a knob of butter till they go a bit brown and slightly crunchy on the surface.

For our beans on the side, my go-to options are white beans (butter beans or cannelli) mashed with a wand blender and whatever cooking liquid there is to make white bean mash, any beans stirred into a soup or stew, or a variation of this, which is

1 can lentils (puy, usually, because they don’t go to mush)

small handful of bacon lardons (1/2 a normal pack or one of the small double packs from Sainsburys – pancetta or chopped streaky bacon works too)

a few green onions chopped or a 1/2 a leek

a dollop of Dijon mustard

pepper and salt if you feel it needs it

and sometimes a tablespoon of cream

I just fry the lardons till crispy, saute the onions or leeks in the oil from the lardons,  dump in the drained and rinsed can of beans, heat gently for a few minutes, then stir in the mustard and cream (and you can mix them together first in a small bowl just to make sure it gets evenly distributed) If you have some or a way to make a small portion of chicken stock (like the liquid broth concentrate) a 1/4 cup of that works too, but I wouldn’t make a whole cup just to add such a small amount to this!)

Yet another fish soup! Thai-style

For some reason we are finding fish soup a good compromise between my preference for salad and DHs preference for a hot meal even in summer.

This one was outstanding, if I do say so myself!

prawn – I used two bags of frozen raw prawns. Fresh is better, but I had frozen.

oil – Macadamia nut oil or sunflower oil is best, olive oil otherwise

chili, garlic and ginger – I used a tbls. of each.

1 tsp ground coriander

1 can coconut milk and two cans of water

juice of two limes

3 tbls Thai fish sauce

bunch of green onions

bag of pea shoots

handful of mange tout (pea pods)

can of cannelli beans

Saute the spices in the oil for a minute or two, careful not to let them burn

Add the can of coconut milk and the two cans of water.  Simmer for 10-15 minutes

Add the lime juice and the fish sauce, the beans, onions and the pea pods.  Simmer for another 5 minutes.

Add the prawns and simmer until they go pink but don’t overcook them!

Add the pea shoots and cook for a minute more, just till they wilt.

Serve with a scattering of fresh chopped cilantro and a squeeze of lime. Looks a bit lackluster in the photo but it is a nice rich colour in real life.  and very tasty!

You could add a bag of scallops as well, or some chunked up monkfish tails.  And up the chili a lot if you like it hot.   thought the beans might be odd but they actually were really nice with the shrimp.

Still doing a lot of BBQ, but when I do make a new recipe I will try to add it.

 

Pork Stir Fry

I love making the pork with lemon and thyme, but I sense the family MAY be getting tired of it.  So I tried something new.

8-10 pork loin steaks (trimmed of fat and cut into finger thick strips)

oil – something that can take the wok temperature. Macadamia nut oil, if you can find it, would work.  I only had sunflower so while technically not perfect for slow-carb, it had to do

1 tbls each garlic and ginger

a whole mess 0′ green veg – I used a pack of thin green beans, a pack of mange tout, and 5 or 6 spring onions – chopped (the beans and pea pods in half, the onions diced)

4 tbls black bean sauce – without added sugar if you can find it.

can of Puy lentils (black beans would have been a good alternative, but I had lentils)

Heat the oil in the wok. Toss in the garlic and ginger and stir fry for a moment (do not let it burn)

I did the meat in batches as my wok is not great and we only have an electric stove, so I added the garlic and ginger in 1/3s, with each batch of meat. Stir fry until nearly cooked, 5-7 minutes should do it. Remove each batch to a side plate. When you add all the meat back in to the wok, add any juices as well.

Add the beans and onions and stir fry for a couple of minutes, then add the mange tout and the lentils or other beans, cover and let the veg steam a bit but not go limp.  Stir in the black bean sauce, and serve.

I actually think this might have been good with spinach added, or maybe even over some lettuce for a hot-and-cold almost salad.

The black bean sauce I got was, I think, a little too salty, so I would try a few or use one you already know you like.

Fish Stew

Another fish stew – a little different, much quicker, one-pot on the stove and not too bad for warmer weather.  While I am quite happy eating cold food, salads and the like, in the summer, DH tends to like a hot meal except of the hottest of days.  This doesn’t heat up the kitchen and is very tasty.

1-2 tbls olive oil

1 onion, diced finely

2-3 cloves of garlic, minced or a tbls of garlic puree

juice of one lemon

chopped fresh basil

300g fresh or frozen raw prawns/shrimp

400g can of chopped tomatoes (no sugar added)

100 ml chicken or fish stock

a couple of dashes of Tabasco

1 pouch cooked puy lentils ( or a couple of cups of your own cooked lentils, or even a drained and rinsed can)

Saute the onion and garlic in the olive oil till the onions begin to brown but don’t let the garlic burn.  Add the lemon juice and let it reduce slightly.

Add the tomatoes and the stock and bring it up to the boil.  If using cooked lentils, stir them in and add the prawns then cook for 5-7 minutes, until the prawns are pink and cooked thru.  Frozen prawns will obviously take a little longer than fresh.  If you are using canned lentils, you can add them, then let them simmer for 5 minutes, then add the prawns – to be honest I don’t usually cook the canned lentils for long at all and they are fine. Salt (if you feel it needs it) and pepper to taste.

Spoon into a bowl, drizzle over a bit of olive oil and scatter the basil on top.  If you like you can add another squeeze of fresh lemon juice then serve.

Yummy with steamed fresh asparagus.

You can substitute any sort of bean you like, chickpeas, butter, haricot, whatever.  You can use lime instead of lemon, and coriander instead of basil. You can use a mix of seafood, like scallops and calamari and shrimp, and that’s good too.

 

Been so long – Satay-style flank steak

This seems a good recipe to come back with, as it’s been many, many years since I made it.  OK, technically the peanut butter might be less than ideal but the flavour is so tasty and there is nothing I could substitute.  I think the original recipe, which I have tweaked over the years, came from the Washington Post but the original info is lost in time.

For the marinade:

a good dollop of peanut butter, maybe two tablespoons

a few drops of Tabasco sauce

the juice of two limes

1 tsp fresh ginger, grated

1 tbls fresh garlic, minced

1 tbls soy sauce

Mix this all up.  if it is very thick, add a little more lime juice, some stock, or even some water, to thin it to a pouring consistency.

Marinate a couple of flank steaks for 8 hours or so.  Sorry, no idea on the size and weight.  we get them from Costco in a big pack and they are not full steaks, more like chinks, so it’s hard to tell the weight of any individual one!

Grill or BBQ.  Grind over plenty of fresh pepper, and I like the mixed peppercorns best.  If you BBQ, be aware that the marinade is quite thick and sticky and it will stick to the grill.

The leftover marinade should be cooked well, and then can be spooned over the sliced meat (and slicing thinly, across the grain will make the flank steak less chewy, but keep in mind it is NOT a prime cut, but a bargain one)

Leftovers the next day, on a bed of green salad leaves and a scattering of beans is a great no-fuss lunch, with any extra marinade whisked up with a little sesame oil and extra soy for a salad dressing.

Looks a bit messy, but I’m out of practice.  We have been having a rotating series of meals, all stuff I’ve put on here before, or when I’ve done something new I’ve forgotten to take a photo.

Now summer has fully arrived I suspect I’ll try some new recipes that are more salad based so hopefully there will be new stuff slightly more regularly.

This slow-carb cooking was a total departure from the way I usually cooked.  So in the beginning, I was doing at least 5 new or altered recipes a week.  Once I found a core set of recipes that I felt we could eat over and over again, I soon settled into a routine, cycling thru them, with some favourites coming out every week.  Then it was ALL about the BBQ, and really there are just so many marinades that you can do before they all seem to become variations on the basic oil-acid-spice or herb recipe and not worth sharing.  With some heat finally here and very hot days, I’ll be looking for recipes that either don’t use the oven or that can be made all week after the results of a massive BBQ on the weekend are stored to be trotted out all week.  I still need to pull my finger out and make some home-made Caesar dressing for chicken Caesar salads, as an example.

So how’s it going?  Well, frankly we are still enjoying the food, but the weight loss seems stalled.  No exercise to speak of and too many days with not enough water, and too many “special occasions” that end up being cheat days during the week.  I was 1.5 lbs. away from my first major milestone then a bad cheat day at Jamie’s Italian in London, and a handful of little cheats during the week and I am still losing the same 3 lbs over and over again.  I know what we need to do, but making it happen is harder than it should be.

We shall see what summer brings and then decide.

Pork BBQ with lettuce and peas

I am all about the cooking, usually, and try not to use a lot of pre-prepared stuff (although I do use a LOT of quick items like squeezy garlic and ginger!) but sometimes it’s all about the fast!

I don’t think DH has any idea how easy this one was – but he’ll know now.

Marinate the pork chops in an olive oil salad dressing.  One with no added sugar. Just read the label and pick one you like. OR make a home made marinade like the rosemary and garlic with lemon.  So long as it has some olive oil, some vinegar/citrus (lemon or lime juice is good with chicken, pork or fish, balsamic or plain old red wine vinegar is good with beef) and some herbs (I particularly like thyme, lemon thyme, rosemary or basil) and maybe garlic, it’ll work.

BBQ

Easy Peasy.  I use the leftover marinade added to the Puy Lentils – so long as you cook them yo can tip in the marinade from the bag to flavour them, but make sure you heat them long enough, and a high enough temperature to kill any unfriendly bacteria. 10 minutes should do it on a medium heat, till the marinade boils.

A nice summer side is braised lettuce and peas.

I do this one quick:

roughly chop 4 baby gem lettuce heads, removing the tough stalk part

thaw a couple of cups of frozen peas

Saute some chopped onion, red onion, or leeks in butter

add the peas and a minute or two later, the lettuce.

salt and pepper well.

Serve it up!

I know I have not een adding recipes very often at the moment but we are keeping to the diet (more or less – a few cheats when we are out and about, like lunch at Jamie’s Italian on Bank Holiday Monday in Oxford – tsk, tsk) and doing a LOT of simple BBQ.  Mostly a variation on this sort of dish – marinated meat, beans, veg. It’s all easy, and not really much to share.  When summer hits fully I have a few salad-type dishes I’ll share but at the moment it’s all too simple to bore you with!

Swordfish steaks

We have been doing a bit more fish recently so here is another one:

simple marinade:

Lemon juice

olive oil

plenty of ground black pepper

chopped fresh basil

Marinate the steaks in a bag in the fridge.  Grill just a few minutes on each side till just cooked through.

I did the same with some shrimp skewers:

The leftover marinade I added to the puy lentils.  Fab meal, very fast, very tasty.